Legal365 'has no deadline' for opening stores

Legal365, the online legal service developed by Yorkshire firm Last Cawthra Feather (LCF), has "no deadline" for the opening of its planned legal retail stores, it has emerged.

Ajaz Ahmed, a co-founder of Freeserve who has been advising the firm, said the firm was "still looking for the right investor" before any of the stores could open.

"We still want to open stores. It's where the ultimate future is of a large part of our business."

Legal365's original plan was to open a store in Leeds by the end of 2011, which would be followed by Manchester and another in Yorkshire. LCF has offices in Leeds, Bradford and Ilkley. Ahmed told Solicitors Journal last November that it plans for a store had been delayed until 2013.

"The main thing is that we have to do this properly," Ahmed said. "We will make it simple and the prices right. People will feel more like they are in a café than a legal store.

"One of the good things about the delays is that we've learnt so much more by not opening.

"We've not met anyone who understands what the customer really needs. The only people who can do this are those who look at things with customer shoes and not with lawyer shoes."

Referring to the decision by QualitySolicitors to pull its legal information stands out of WHSmiths, Ahmed said: "If they had a corner of the store with people actually in it, it would have been successful. An unmanned stand and a phone doesn't work."

He concluded that there were "no two ways about it" in terms of the need to open the new retail stores.

"We will find the right partner and we will open. The opportunity is there. It's an enormous market."